Jeff Weiner crowned king of Silicon Valley

Jeff Weiner chief executive officer of LinkedIn Corp., speaks during a town hall meeting with President Barack Obama back in 2011, an event sponsored by LinkedIn in Mountain View, California.
Bloomberg / David Paul Morris

“The professional networking site has defied the ugly gravity clawing at the stock of other social media companies including Facebook, Zynga and Groupon,” wrote SVBJ senior technology reporter Cromwell Schubarth, who interviewed Weiner extensively for a series of articles on the entrepreneur.

Since the 42-year-old Weiner took over LinkedIn in 2009 it has become a concrete symbol of the often- enigmatic concept of networking with nearly half its users saying it helped them increase face-to-face networking effectiveness and to build relationships with people able to influence customers.

But as Schubarth makes clear, Weiner’s biggest accomplishment is successfully taking LinkedIn and its 175 million members public, more than doubling the company’s share price to $94.25 the first day of trading and generating an estimated $1 billion in revenue last year.

Weiner is a New York native who prior to taking the position at LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) worked for seven years as the executive vice president of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and a year as the executive in residence at Greylock, that is, according to his LinkedIn profile (where else would you expect?). In addition to his work with the social network for professionals, Weiner serves as a board member for three boards, including DonorsChoose, and Malaria No More, and as an advisory board member at Venture for America.

Michael del Castillo is the technology and innovation reporter at Upstart Business Journal, a member of American City Business Journals. A graduate of Columbia University, his work has appeared in the New Yorker. He is also the cofounder of Literary Manhattan, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting Manhattan’s literary community and creating new ways to appreciate literature.

SHARE THIS STORY

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.